Animation can grab and hold one’s attention in ways static content simply can’t. A perfect example is Duolingo.
In 2022, the language-learning app redesigned many of its onboarding and lesson flows to focus on animation-first learning.
The main goal of this initiative was to replace static screens or plain texts with animated characters that would provide users with real-time feedback. For example, these characters would cheer for users as they go through lessons and encourage them when they make mistakes.
Although these changes were seemingly simple, Duolingo experienced an increase in daily user retention after their implementation. Many learners also reported that the animations made grammar and vocabulary practice more natural and fun. (The Psychology Behind Duolingo’s Success. Scrimmage, 2020).
If you want to create the same kind of engagement in your e-learning courses, this blog post is for you. We’ll walk you through the different types of animation, how to make animated educational videos, and when to use animation for e-learning. 🤓
Summary
- Understanding the role of animation for e-learning
- Effective ways to integrate animation into e-learning courses
- Best practices when using animation for e-learning courses
- How Blue Carrot can help your business
- Final thoughts
Understanding the role of animation for e-learning
It is clear that animation in all its forms has become an integral part of educational contexts. Numerous studies demonstrate that animation, when applied in courses and educational programs, aids in learning:
A 2024 experiment published in the Journal of Science Education and Technology (Enhancing Learning Through Animated Video: An Eye‑Tracking Methodology Approach) found that pure animated visuals helped direct learner attention more effectively than traditional “talking head” videos, resulting in higher learning gains and reduced visual distraction. However, we can definitely say that as a tool, animation cannot be used blindly, as its educational impact depends largely on instructional context and design quality.
👉 How animation enhances learning outcomes
Animation makes lessons fun, easier to understand, and more memorable than plain text or traditional video lectures. This is why an increasing number of educators and e-learning providers are incorporating animation into their educational experiences. Based on our experience, here are five ways e-learning animation can give you a competitive advantage.
📌 Simplifies information
Think of a time when you were asked to read through a huge chunk of text and, halfway through, started losing focus. This happens because your brain is processing the information from the text and turning it into mental pictures. After a few minutes, this causes mental fatigue due to the cognitive overload.
Video animation for e-learning takes that extra work away by providing your brain with visuals that can be easily understood and remembered without losing focus.
📌 Enhances learning outcomes
Understanding, recalling, and applying perceived information is the ultimate educational goal.
Since animation pairs visuals with audio and text, it taps into multiple senses at once. This way, it guides the learner’s attention to what’s important, which reduces the cognitive overload and makes the experience more memorable.
Several studies have reported that learners who see and hear information are more likely to recall it later than their counterparts who rely solely on reading.
📌 Boosts engagement & retention
In professional development programs or when training employees on new software, the material may be highly technical, which can cause learners to lose interest if the strategy is not effective. This is where animation is more effective by using storytelling elements that naturally draw attention and keep the learners hooked.
When learners are actively engaged, their brains store that information for a longer time than when they’re passively consuming content. It’s just like reading a manual versus watching an animated demo. You’ll probably remember the content in the demo longer than what you’ve read in the manual.
📌 Supports different learning styles
According to the Social Science Research Network, 65 percent of people are visual learners, while 30 percent of people learn by hearing. Animation naturally fits how people prefer to learn. It is an organic synthesis of sound, motion, and visuals — visual learners can watch the concepts being illustrated on the screen, while auditory learners can listen to the explanations. Because of this characteristic, animation can be designed with inclusivity in mind, adapted to different needs, and serve as a universal technique for training.
A review published in TEM Journal found that animated material significantly improves language and social skills development for learners with dyslexia, autism, or intellectual disabilities, demonstrating the inclusivity and adaptability of animation-based learning (Baglama, Yucesoy, & Yikmis, 2018).
📌 Triggers memory retention
Cognitive load is the process by which the human brain transforms information from short-term memory to long-term recall.
When your brain is bombarded with too much information at once, it becomes less efficient. This manifests as you losing attention and not being able to remember the information being presented to you.
Animation reduces this stress on your brain even when the topics are extremely technical or scientific, and leads to better focus and memory retention.
According to a study, animations were found to result in better recall and also improved overall long-term retention in biology topics. (O’Day, D.H. The value of animations in biology teaching: a study of long-term memory retention. CBE Life Sci. Educ., 2007.)
👉 When to use animation in e-learning?
When animation is used withpurpose, it can solve real learning problems. Different types of animation serve different purposes, but they all share a few important characteristics. Animation helps the brain understand and remember things by showing how ideas connect and keep your attention, so you don’t get lost or bored halfway through.
Here are some situations where using educational animation can make the biggest impact.
📌 You have a complex subject or concept
Technical materials usually need some kind of visualization, and when your teams are spread out, it’s not like you can just walk over and point at a diagram. That’s where carefully designed asynchronous or synchronous courses come in: an animated lesson can make complex subjects clear, breaking down intricate processes into easy-to-follow, step-by-step visuals.
For example, animated scenarios can be used to help learners practice decision-making when faced with certain problems or situations, such as cybercrime in an office setting. They can also be used for explaining workplace policies, compliance rules, and etiquette training modules.
📌 Learners are struggling to finish a course
Completion rate in itself may not be the most important tool for measuring success, but it shows how many people were interested enough to finish the course (which is a clear sign whether the approach is working well).
The issue of early dropouts is a persistent problem, and although it’s not always easy to fix, it’s definitely possible. The key is to remember a few basic principles that can make a difference to keep learners engaged:
- Define clear learning goals;
- Choose the right learning pattern;
- Create visuals that support the content.
Animation cannot solve all e-learning problems; however, it is a crucial component of complex solutions. To understand why learners struggle to complete a course, examine the content and visual interpretation of the script. Lessons can be made more dynamic and visually appealing using animations. Beyond keeping the learners interested, it can also reduce confusion and the feeling of information overload.
Effective ways to integrate animation into e-learning courses
There are plenty of animation techniques and ways to incorporate it into your e-learning content. If you’re looking to use animation in e-learning, here are some of the most popular types and when to use them.
📌 2D animation
2D video animations for e-learning use illustrated characters to tell a story or act out scenarios. Since 2D animation shows emotions, reactions, and behaviors of characters, it makes the learning experience more human and memorable. This type of animation works best in storytelling scenarios that can be used in onboarding, compliance and procedural training, soft skills training, as well as culture and values videos.
However, 2D animation can also show moving objects and serve as an explanatory tool for learners. In the example below, we have an explainer lesson (a part of an e-learning course) where there are only animated objects and a curated voiceover.
Explainer videos are ideal for breaking down complex ideas into simple, visually digestible segments. They use motion, icons, and metaphors to clarify abstract or technical topics, such as fintech or energy topics.
📌 Screencast with animated overlays
Commonly used in software training, platform walkthroughs, and technical tutorials, this type of animation combines real screen recordings with animated elements such as highlights, arrows, callouts, and pop-out tips.
Screencasts are commonly used to make process-based learning more engaging and easier to follow. For instance, an onboarding course for a new app could be made more interactive by showing a live demo of the interface, using an animated circle button to highlight certain features, or displaying tooltips.
More often screencasts are used in instructor-led training (ITL) and virtual instructor-led training (VITL). For example, this could be step-by-step instructions for using new software, with an expert behind the scenes or on screen as a guide. This method is relevant in both synchronous and asynchronous learning, as videos can be recorded or conducted live.
📌 Avatar-based animation
The introduction of AI into education has led to the development of AI avatars, which not only speed up the creation of training courses but also help to easily scale and improve them. That is why, with their active use, avatar-based animation has been taken to the next level. Since the avatars humanize digital learning, this type of animation can make learners feel more connected and supported. Avatar-based animation is great for customer service simulations, soft skills development, and onboarding programs.
📌 3D animation
3D animation brings concepts to life by adding an extra dimension to storytelling. Below is a great example of 3D animation, which shows how a new beauty product was made, and how it works on the skin. The ability to rotate, zoom in, and view 3D models from different angles makes them visually interesting to viewers.
3D animation is perfect for technical training, medical or scientific simulations, and product demonstrations.
📌 Motion graphics
Often, when we think about visualizing numbers, statistics, and graphs, we are talking about motion graphics.
This technique is a combination of movement, text, icons, and abstract shapes used to visually organize information.
For example, the e-learning animation video above uses animated figures, transitions, and key takeaways to guide the learner’s focus.
Motion graphics is one of the ways to display infographics (reports, research summaries, corporate presentations, or even technical explanations).
Explaining processes, training compliance, software manuals, and data visualization becomes easier and more understandable, which is why businesses and educational institutions choose this animation style as part of their learning and development initiatives.
📌 Whiteboard animation
If you have ever seen one of those videos where the narrator explains a concept while drawing out illustrations, that’s a whiteboard animation.
Due to its simple and clean look, whiteboard animations are considered great for breaking down complex information into easy-to-understand content. Choosing a minimalistic design might help hold attention and this allows learners to follow along with the flow of information.
This makes whiteboard animations an ideal choice for animated explainer videos and step-by-step guides.
📌 Traditional animation
Traditional animation is often associated with cartoons and storytelling like those from old-school Disney. In traditional animation, each frame is hand drawn to create smooth, lifelike movement. This also means it requires more time and effort to produce. While it may seem that this technique is not suited for learning, it actually offers some advantages. Videos on culture and values, soft skills training, and scenario-based learning are exactly the types of videos in which the narrative drives the story, making traditional animation the way to go for e-learning contexts.
Best practices when using animation for e-learning courses
While animation is a great tool for making e-learning courses impactful, its effectiveness depends on how you use it. Done well, it can make learning clear, memorable, and enjoyable, but done poorly, it can be distracting or overwhelming.
If you’re thinking of using animations in your e-learning course, here are the five best practices we’ve picked from our ultimate educational and training video production guide.
👉 Make sure the animations serve a purpose
As we mentioned earlier in this blog post, animations serve not only as decoration but also offer numerous benefits.
Before designing any learning content, define clear learning objectives and what the ultimate goal is: to transfer knowledge, unlock motivation, develop a skill, or change behavior. This is important as the story conveyed with the chosen type of animation should not distract, but rather support the point.
When in doubt, ask yourself, does this specific animation highlight key information, help the learner better understand a concept, or guide their attention? If the answer is no, rethink the learning pattern. Creating animation for e-learning should be a deliberate decision.
👉 Choose the right animation style for your content
It is tempting to choose the style you like the most, but will it be an effective choice? Detailed analysis and goal setting will help narrow down the list of animation styles, making the choice data-driven. Keep in mind that certain goals might require a mix of techniques, and this is where e-learning partners can help.
👉 Design for interactivity
Animations become even more effective when learners are given the chance to interact with them.
Demo: course for GEN Z
View demoHere is the tip:
Include quizzes, drag-and-drop activities, or clickable animations that reveal additional information, and the lessons become an active experience for learners rather than a passive viewing experience
👉 Maintain consistency in tone and branding
It is difficult to overestimate the impact of consistent design. This is particularly relevant to the learning experience, as the brain then perceives information more easily, thereby reducing some of the cognitive load associated with processing different styles and colors.
Learners don’t have to “re‑learn” how to navigate the material each time, so their working memory is freed up to focus on what they are supposed to learn, rather than how to read/understand the format.
👉 Test with real users
Piloting the course before the actual launch is more important than one might think. With animated content, even small inconsistencies in style, pacing, or emphasis can create confusion for learners. Watch how actual learners interact with your course to identify what’s clear and what needs adjusting. Even the most carefully designed animation can fall flat if it doesn’t work for learners in practice.
For instance, if your learners report that an animation runs too quickly for them to follow, you could slow down the pace.
Since these are things you can’t always catch in the design stage, gathering feedback early and making improvements will help ensure the animations not only look good but also genuinely support learning outcomes.
How Blue Carrot can help your business
Blue Carrot is an animated explainer video production company that combines design expertise with creative storytelling and custom visuals to make learning fun, engaging, and memorable. Since our inception in 2014, we’ve been trusted by over 300 global clients, including leading universities and Fortune 500 companies. Here’s why:
- Start every project with clear objectives and measurable outcomes.
- Create custom animations for courses, graphics, and video styles that fit your brand and audience.
- Services range from quick animated explainers to full e-learning ecosystems in multiple languages.
- Use AI-driven tools for e-learning animation to streamline production and keep projects efficient.
- We have a distributed team across the US, EU, and Eastern Europe for seamless delivery across all time zones.
- We go beyond completion rates to measure real behavior change and performance impact.
So, whether you need a full-scale course or targeted support with video animations for e-learning, interactive modules, or localization, our team at Blue Carrot can help at a budget that fits you.
Final thoughts
Animation is perhaps one of the most powerful tools in modern e-learning. When used thoughtfully, it makes learning work by simplifying complex information and keeping the learners engaged.
With all the technological advancements, the possibilities for using animation in e-learning will only continue to grow. However, make sure your animation serves a purpose, because only then can you bridge the gap between learning and remembering and make your courses a success.
If you’re ready to bring your learning content to life, contact Blue Carrot for a quick consultation.
